Planners float hopes for waterfront gondolas

Citizens for Regional Transit unveiled plans for a gondola lift system on Buffalo's waterfront at Hallwalls Monday. Some envision the system as a key part in developing a waterfront that would attract hundreds of thousands of visitors.

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Seth Triggs of Citizens for Regional Transit outlines the group's hopes for a waterfront gondola system.

Credit Chris Caya/WBFO news

CRT Vice President Seth Triggs says the gondolas would ride on cables above the Skyway between Canalside and the Outer Harbor.

"We would be able to use standardized towers. We don't want to require any existing structures. The idea, too, is to have this as a multi-mobile approach so we would pole locate one of the base stations for the gondola with Erie Canal Harbor Station on the Metro Rail," Triggs said.

The gondolas would run to the vacant Port Terminal Buildings off Fuhmann Boulevard. Jim Carr with the 21st Century Park Group says Terminal B could be transformed into a significant beach .

"Equal in stature, I think, to what Crystal Beach used to be. We're talking about bringing in a ship load of sand, putting it around and in Terminal B," Carr explained.

"We would have a number of museums in there (Terminal A), a number of displays so people could find their way to other tourist attractions in Western New York. All sorts of indoor recreation," Carr said.

Triggs says it would take about a year to get the gondolas up and running - and cost between $20 million and $60 million.